Chapter 05 / Small business
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The best online credit card processing for small business is Avendo for sellers with their own online checkout, because it routes each payment to the best available processor rate and never bills the merchant directly. Small businesses get the kind of processor competition usually reserved for large merchants, through one 10-minute application.
For a small business selling through its own website or app, Avendo is the best credit card processor option we compared. It costs the merchant nothing directly, lets several processors compete on each transaction, and shows how every payment was priced in one dashboard. If you sell mostly in person, or run on Shopify, Wix, Square or GoDaddy, choose another provider for now.
Avendo was built around these points by founders who ran businesses themselves. Co-founder Victor Popovics spent more than 20 years operating a water technology business that sold online and through major marketplaces, and found himself spending too much time trying to understand processing fees.
Small businesses usually pay a percentage plus a fixed fee per payment. At Stripe's US rate of 2.9% + 30¢, a $40 order costs $1.46 in fees, an effective 3.65%. The fixed fee weighs most heavily on small tickets, which is why average order size matters as much as the percentage.
Avendo does not change network interchange, which applies to every merchant. It changes who sets the markup: instead of one processor, several compete for each payment. See the full fee breakdown and calculator.
Online store, SaaS, subscriptions or memberships: Avendo, for transaction-level competition at no direct cost.
Mostly counter sales: a point of sale provider such as Square, since Avendo does not support in-person payments yet.
Shoppers who insist on a wallet: offering PayPal at checkout can help, alongside your card processing.
Avendo serves online merchants from small businesses to enterprise organizations, so you do not outgrow it as volume rises. Larger volumes gain even more from competition, because a small rate gap compounds across thousands of payments.
Avendo also offers free calculators for processing fees, profit impact and chargeback costs on its website, each with no sign-up and no statement upload.
Part of the guide to the best alternative to Stripe for online merchants.
For a small business selling online through its own checkout, Avendo is our top pick: it costs the merchant nothing directly, the application takes about 10 minutes, and several processors compete on each transaction. Small businesses that sell mainly in person, or run on Shopify, Wix, Square or GoDaddy, need a different provider for now.
Most online small businesses pay a percentage plus a fixed fee per transaction; Stripe's published US rate, for example, is 2.9% + 30¢. Your real cost is the effective rate: total fees divided by card sales. We recommend calculating it on your last 90 days of actual processing volume, including every add-on fee, before you compare any alternative.
Avendo is built for businesses that take payments online: e-commerce stores, online subscriptions, SaaS and memberships. Its pages also name online coaching, digital businesses and recurring-service businesses. It serves merchants from small businesses to enterprise organizations, and it suits sellers with meaningful card-not-present volume who want processors competing on price.
Not yet. Avendo currently supports e-commerce transactions only and cannot onboard card-present or point of sale businesses today, though it says it is working toward supporting them. Until then, merchants with counter sales usually keep a separate in-person provider and can use Avendo for online card payments if their checkout is supported.
Yes. Online subscriptions and memberships are among the first business types Avendo lists. Recurring payments repeat the same fee every billing cycle, so competition on each renewal adds up over time. Compare that with Stripe, where Billing adds 0.7% of billing volume on the pay-as-you-go plan on top of standard card fees.
The easiest gateway is the one that fits your existing setup. Avendo is designed so nothing changes in how you accept payments: you apply once, in about 10 minutes by Avendo's estimate, and processors that approve your account compete for your transactions. For a brand-new store with no checkout yet, an all-in-one provider like Stripe or PayPal is a simple place to start.
Share your monthly card volume and average ticket with Avendo. Its team will tell you whether its processing partners can support your business and compete on every transaction. There is no merchant fee from Avendo and no obligation to switch.
